The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro.

  • Munro, Aeneas.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at the same time, as if by order; the head is kept erect, and the neck is- as if stiffened. They go straight on, irrespective of danger ; and though they manifest a decided power sometimes to select a slightly different course, yet they are not easily turned from their course, and being so> numerous and closely phalanxed nothing escapes them. The sight of this “army” is a very impressive one, and once seen will never be forgotten. In some respects it is an awful sight; the spectacle strikes you with pity and sorrow to see at once before you that the toil and the labour for the season, or indeed the year, is lost. SOME EFFECTS OF AN “ARMY ON THE MARCH” 134. Resistance futile.—From the foregoing, it will be seen that it is by no means an easy matter to stop this “army on the march,”— in fact, it has only been within the last two or three decades that some devices have been obtained whereby they can be successfully prevented from following their own course, the direction of which may be slightly diverted, but only if special means are adroitly placed in their way. Otherwise, they are pertinacious regarding their course, and they surmount all difficulties in their way ; they are impeded by no barriers, except, as we shall see, of one special kind. They are therefore, as a rule, more difficult to manage than the proverbial obstinate pig. A pig you can drive anywhere by trying to drive him in the opposite direction ; but the locust knows which way he wants to go, and at certain periods, if he is absolutely precluded from going that way, he will go no other, until he tires you out, and then he serenely marches on. There is abundant proof of the fact that any ordinary obstruction you may put in their path, and which might stop the progress of most other creeping things, is of no avail in this case. It will suffice to give an instance, and all persons who are acquainted with this fact can at once realise the condition and truthfulness of the portraiture. An experienced writer and observer describes the circumstances, which will be found detailed in par. 222 following. “ The rule prevailing is that, when any particular c school ’ or com- pany of the army is on the march, they are not hindered or deterred from pursuing the course they have elected. The column follow the vanguard, and when the vanguard changes its course the change seems to be curiously communicated in wave-like fashion all along the com- pany following. Sometimes the army will be more dense at one part than at another, and it may happen that some of the companies appear to be going in different or even opposing directions. Therefore it is occasionally seen that the direction as it were to-day is different from what it was yesterday; but this is a matter of elective instinct and not of force or compulsion. Hence we find them jumping into the water
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